JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville University men's basketball team began its 2020-21 campaign on a high note on Wednesday afternoon when it dispatched Coastal Georgia (3-4), 99-57 in the first athletic competition on campus since early March.

The environment was altered slightly with socially distanced benches, an extremely limited capacity of fans and a variety of new rules in place to keep the student-athletes, coaches and spectators safe as the umbrella of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to shade our way of life. Nevertheless, the Dolphins came out with as much fire power as anyone could have asked for en route to their first season-opening win since 2016-17.

Tyreese Davis, 641 days removed from the last time he took the floor in a Jacksonville uniform, wasted no time reminding the Dolphin-faithful what we missed out on in 2019-20. The redshirt-sophomore, finally clear from the recovery process of the knee injury that sidelined him last season, canned the first shot he took, a deep three from the wing and never looked back. He posted a 5-5 effort from long range, a career-best, and shot 6-8 from the floor overall to score 19 points while hauling in five boards. He also handed out three assists, collected a steal and a block.

Newcomer Dontarius James joined Davis with his own fireworks show. He dropped in four three balls on his way to 14 points to go with three blocks and a pair of steals. All career-highs for the Xavier transfer. The Dolphins went on to knock down 15 triples in the game, matching the fifth best effort in that category in program history.

Sophomores Diante Wood and Trey sides dropped in 16 and 13 points, respectively. Sides added career-bests with five assists and three steals while Wood finished one made field goal show of matching his career high. Wood was 6-8 from the floor and 4-4 from the free throw line off the bench.

Zameron Boozer was the fifth Dolphin to reach double figures and he did so in his debut. The freshman was 4-4 from the floor with a pair of ferocious dunks while collecting two rebounds and two blocks. Overall, 12 Dolphins found the bottom of the bucket with all 14 dressed players making an appearance.

With the game tied at five early on, Trey Sides took an assist off a steal by Mo Arnold to push the Dolphins ahead by two and sparking a 20-7 run that created the initial cushion for the Dolphins. The extended run ballooned out to 46-14, giving the Dolphins a 51-19 advantage following a pair of Arnold free throws. The first half came to a close with Jacksonville ahead, 53-27.

Jacksonville was able to get its bench involved in the second half as the likes of Loseni Kamara, Cameron Boozer and Connor Thompson all secured their first baskets in the green and white. Corey Romich, making his first start since the 2017-18 season, scored three points and pulled down a career-high seven boards.

The Dolphins shot 56.5 percent from the floor (35-62) in the game. And 45.2 percent from long range (14-31) while out-rebounding the Mariners, 44-31.

Next up will be a matchup with Southern Miss. out of Conference USA on Saturday, Nov. 28 in Swisher Gymnasium. That game will tip at 2 p.m. Fans will be permitted but there is limited availability with team pass list, students, faculty, staff, donors and prior season ticket holders getting the right of first refusal. Any leftover tickets will be released to the public for pre-sale only, no walk-up. 180 max capacity.